Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and MelodramaFrom novels of the nineteenth century to films of the 1990s, American culture, abounds with images of white, middle-class mothers. In Motherhood and Representation, E. Ann Kaplan considers how the mother appears in three related spheres: the historical, in which she charts changing representations of the mother from 1830 to the postmodernist present; the psychoanalytic, which discusses theories of the mother from Freud to Lacan and the French Feminists; and the mother as she is figured in cultural representations: in literary and film texts such as East Lynne, Marnie and the The Handmaid's Tale, as well as in journalism and popular manuals on motherhood. Kaplan's analysis identifies two dominant paradigms of the mother as `Angel' and `Witch', and charts the contesting and often contradictory discourses of the mother in present-day America. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 36
Page xi
... specific daughter- and mother-subjects that I embodied from, in Lacan's terms, the unconscious Imaginary and Symbolic Mothers over which I had no control and yet which positioned me. This led to the book's primary focus on discourses ...
... specific daughter- and mother-subjects that I embodied from, in Lacan's terms, the unconscious Imaginary and Symbolic Mothers over which I had no control and yet which positioned me. This led to the book's primary focus on discourses ...
Page 6
... specific focus on representations rather than on what I will shortly call “the historical” or “real life” mother, who is usually the object of study; second, its theorizing the mother-representations as produced through tensions between ...
... specific focus on representations rather than on what I will shortly call “the historical” or “real life” mother, who is usually the object of study; second, its theorizing the mother-representations as produced through tensions between ...
Page 7
... specific texts. Other aspects of the book to be noted are, first, its broad historical span (it encompasses North American culture — including European influences — from 1830 to 1960, with a look at recent developments in the final ...
... specific texts. Other aspects of the book to be noted are, first, its broad historical span (it encompasses North American culture — including European influences — from 1830 to 1960, with a look at recent developments in the final ...
Page 8
... specific historical contexts, cultural, racial and class differences, the changing nature of the reading/viewing public, the contexts of production and exhibition, and so on. In order to narrow the project and make possible a coherent ...
... specific historical contexts, cultural, racial and class differences, the changing nature of the reading/viewing public, the contexts of production and exhibition, and so on. In order to narrow the project and make possible a coherent ...
Page 11
... specific focus on film (although other materials are referred to in the final chapter). Since the linking of literary and film texts provided difficulties for some early readers of the book proposal, let me note that while the two kinds ...
... specific focus on film (although other materials are referred to in the final chapter). Since the linking of literary and film texts provided difficulties for some early readers of the book proposal, let me note that while the two kinds ...
Contents
Part II Motherhood and fictional representation | 57 |
Notes | 220 |
Bibliography | 227 |
Names index | 239 |
Subject index | 245 |
Other editions - View all
Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan Limited preview - 2013 |
Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
American argue articulated baby Barbara briefly Carlyle Carlyle’s century Chapter child Chodorow Christopher Strong codes complicit concept confine conflict constructed culture Cynthia daughter defined desire developed difficult discussed dominant East Lynne erotic explore fantasies father female feminine feminism feminist fiction fictional figure film film versions film’s final finally find first focus foetus Freud Freudian gaze gender genre Handmaid’s Tale Harriet heroine historical Hollywood ideal identification ideology images Imaginary Irigaray Isabel Kristeva Lacanian Levison linked Lois Weber male Marnie maternal melodrama maternal sacrifice middle-class mother mother-figure mother—child mother—daughter motherhood discourses narrative nineteenth-century North America notes novel nuclear family Oankali Oedipal paradigm patriarchal Peola phallic phallus popular position postmodern pre-Oedipal produced psychic psychoanalytic theory reflects relation relationship representations represents reproductive technologies resisting role Rousseau sexual significant significantly social specific spectator sphere Stella Dallas Symbolic terrain unconscious upper-class Weber woman woman’s women